Bangladesh News

Secretariat of the Election Commission (EC) is yet to gain full financial and administrative autonomy as it is still being operated under the office of the chief adviser.

Three months ago, on March 9, President Iajuddin Ahmed promulgated an ordinance that paved the way for setting up an independent secretariat for the EC with the status of a division.

However, the cabinet division of the government has yet to complete the necessary amendment of rules of business that stands in the way of separating the EC secretariat from the prime minister’s office (PMO), now the office of the chief adviser, said sources at the EC.

Senior officials in the cabinet division however claimed that a few months ago they sent a draft proposal to amend the rules of business to the law ministry for vetting, but the law ministry is yet to complete their task and send the draft back to the cabinet division.

“Once the law ministry completes vetting the proposal, it will be sent to the president with the request of issuing an executive order to amend the rules of business,” said a cabinet division senior official.

Commenting on the issue, Election Commissioner Muhammed Sohul Hussain told The Daily Star recently, “Of course, inconsistency still remains as the rules of business are not amended in line with the new law.”

“The rules of business should have been amended alongside promulgation of the new law,” he added.

The sources said the EC is annoyed at the delay and considering asking the government to expedite the process of amending the rules of business.

A senior official at the EC secretariat said the Election Commission is going to ask the government to repeal the provision of the rules of business [promulgated by the then president in 1996] under which the EC secretariat has been operating as a division under the PMO.

The process of separating the EC secretariat from the PMO started on June 7 last year when the EC sent a proposal to the caretaker government to free its secretariat from the PMO.

The council of advisers to the caretaker government on June 23 last year approved in principle the promulgation of the ordinance that would create an independent EC secretariat and the president in March this year promulgated the ordinance.

Earlier on May 21, 2005, amid a public outcry over the PMO’s influence over the EC secretariat, then chief election commissioner (CEC) MA Syed with a view to strengthening the commission submitted a proposal to the president, recommending the creation of an election cadre with an independent secretariat.

The past political governments however did not entertain the former CEC’s recommendations.